Road agencies gear up for harsh, costly winter

A winter like last will make it difficult for county road budgets. Here, Nick Aiuto, owner of Nicks Towing in Clinton Township, tows one of the many vehicles that were casulaties of record-setting snowfall last February.
Macomb Daily file photo

Costs associated with last year’s wicked winter weather could carry over to 2014-15 as road officials and others charged with keeping roads clear replenish salt supplies.

“The harsh winter last year caused many road agencies, and other public entities … to deplete their salt reserves,” Denise Donahue, director of the County Road Association, wrote in a news release distributed this week.

“As the demand for early salt delivery increased this year, so did the price.”

Donahue, whose association represents the interests of Michigan’s 83 county road agencies, said many agencies have experienced, or expect to experience, increased salt prices as they fill up their storage barns in anticipation of the coming winter.

Advertisement

The statewide average price per ton for salt $65.71, the association reported. That represents an increase of about 46.3 percent from a year ago.

Typically, road agencies stock up on salt between now and October – called an “early fill” -- and hope Old Man Winter cooperates and they don’t have to purchase more.

“We’re filling up all our storage facilities to capacity,” said Robert Hoepfner, director the Macomb County Department of Roads.

Hoepfner said the price per ton his department paid for early fill salt is $47.80 per ton, about the same as last year. Macomb County stockpiles about 40,000 to 50,000 tons of salt in five storage facilities to start a new season.

Last year, that wasn’t nearly enough. Macomb County used 74,000 tons of salt, about 50 percent more than during a normal season. The road department spent about $3.7 million for salt.

“It was a rough winter,” Hoepfner said.

But another winter like last year, which saw record salt usage, would mean re-stocking the supplies mid-winter. Hoepfner said a second fill of his storage facilities would carry a price tag of $77.15 per ton, a whopping 61 percent hike over the early fill price.

“It gives me a stomach ache,” he said.

The numbers vary, but the story is similar in Oakland County, said Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission of Oakland County.

Oakland County used a bit more than 100,000 tons of salt last year, compared to a five-year average of 63,000 tons.

When his agency replenished its supply this summer, Bryson said the price for early fill jumped about 25 percent over last year.

Early projections for the winter of 2014-2015 call for conditions as bad or worse than they were a year ago. If those projections pan out, road agencies will have little choice but to absorb the additional costs and deal with battered budgets, Donahue said.

“Michigan’s state and local road agencies have a legal responsibility to keep roads reasonably safe for travel,” she said.